Moneywise Kids

Moneywise Kids

This is a great little game I picked up 5 years or so ago.  Sunshine and I have been playing it during Special Time all week and he's really catching on to the premise.  I see his math improving so much in just 3 days!

You begin the game with a $100 bill.  There are tokens face-down in the center.  The object is to collect all 6 tokens, which must be purchased for anywhere from $5-30 each AND have $100 in savings in order to win.  You can either shake the dice and earn money (a 1 is $10, all others are face value) OR choose a token.  There are also 4 "pay a bill" tokens--2 each of SICK or POTHOLE.  If you've purchased either the Medical Care token or Paid Your Taxes token, you won't have to pay the bill.  The only other rule in the game is that whenever able, you must trade your money for the biggest bill you can.  So when you've collected 5 ones, you must trade them for a 5.  Two fives must be traded for a ten.  Etc.  It's great for helping kids learn to make change and learn what each bill is worth, plus the idea of budgeting (to buy your tokens) and saving (the $100 to win at the end).

I already see Sunshine knowing how much change he'll get from a $20 to pay for a $15 token, and understanding that if he has 5 ones and a 5 and a 10, he can trade up for a $20.  He's also checking for himself what bills he'll collect from his roll.  Upon shaking a 4 and a 3, he recounts to tell me that for the roll of 7, he needs a five and 2 ones.

Hurray for simplicity and fun in a board game!  (and no lottery tokens!  Boo to PayDay!)

A Little Math Practice

Banana Boy has begun adding in columns without carrying.  His math book only had one page of problems, so I made up extra pages in the same style, only using family members and other objects.  For now I kept all the problems the same, which really doesn't build his word problem solving skills, but he still needed to focus on physically setting the problem up and writing it correctly, so I was fine with that.

So one of today's problems was:

Banana Boy ate 178 M & Ms.  Dad ate 21 more than he.  How many M & Ms did Dad eat?

The next problem was:

After eating 178 M & Ms, Banana Boy was really sick but he had 611 M & Ms left.  How many did he have at first?

After he had solved all the problems, I brought out the 2 lb. bag of M & Ms from the cupboard (because the reality is Dad DOES love M & Ms) and poured a big pile out onto the table.  We decided to see what 178 M & Ms really looks like.

In the process, Banana Boy got all sorts of practice counting to 20 by twos and practice counting by 20s and practice narrowing down his groups as he got closer to 178.  He made 5 piles of 20.  Then more piles of 20 until he had 60 more.  Then he knew he needed a pile of 10.  And finally, 8 more.

 2, 4, 6, 8, 10...

This is what 178 M & Ms looks like!

This is what I look like after I've eaten 178 M & Ms.

And no, the pile he actually got to eat was not the pile of 178!

Just Like That, She's Multiplying

So Pepper, who cried all morning (and for the last 3 months, for that matter) showed her multiplication pictures to her dad.  And because explaining something to someone else is the surest way to know it yourself, she now KNOWS all the facts for which we drew pictures.

From the kitchen, where they are rolling truffles, she calls to me, "Mom?  What's 8 x 8?"

"You know that one!"

"Oh, 64!  I made 66 mint truffles!"

And she's cracking up because I caught her KNOWING her multiplication facts.

Just like that, she's multiplying AND using it in real life.

Conquering Multiplication Without Any Effort

In new developments, Pepper has been spending her days shedding tears over math.

Wait! That's not new. That's the same thing she does everyday!

In new developments, I was a GOOD mom/teacher today and took steps to help her learn in the way she does best (ie: not with a workbook or anything that requires any effort at all)

I reminded myself that the reason I homeschool is so that I can meet the unique learning challenges of each child. I tend to focus on how much work that is (times 4 kids!) and just resort to workbooks.

So anyway, while stuck on her "times eights" I quickly sketched out a funny picture for her.

Try not to focus on how smelly the party looks. It's supposed to be confetti.

Seeing how delighted she was with this idea (read: she stopped wailing and only sobbed quietly) I sketched out some more.

This one I actually borrowed from my very favorite multiplication games site.

I used the 8x8 that is featured on the cover of the book.

If you would rather not think of your own mnemonics, then I encourage you to visit this site and buy one of their books. They offer two different books, both of which use a picture/story and offer lessons plans etc. I've not purchased either book, so I can only tell you what I've read on the website. Also on this website are tons of resources to use in making your own unit on the multiplication tables, such as worksheets and drill tests.

Another similar resource is Times Tales


If all you need is work on a few of the facts, you could just make your own little stories. Pepper has times through the fours down pat. Fives she'll master quickly if she thinks about it a little bit. Sixes she knows from the 100 Sheep Skip Counting CD. Nines she's using a nine trick. So it's just sevens and eights she is really stuck on, and then, only the uppers.

Here are the rest that I made today.











Right away when I told her it was dirty food, she said, "Oh, 32!!" Yay! Pepper!
In case you can't tell from my prize-winning drawing, the eights are crabby and dirty and the ham and peas (you DID know that was ham and peas, right?) have dirt on them.

Maybe you'll want to buy the books!

Math Cat

Heavenly Angles

Did you know all the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees?

Daisy didn't know this either, so I set out to show her.

First you need a triangle. Mark each of the angles so you will know WHICH of them belong to your triangle. The marks are the curvy little lines in each corner (and I should have marked them with one, two and three lines respectively to show that they are different measures. But I didn't)

Did you see the straight lines in the first picture. Well cut off each corner of your triangle on the straight lines.


Now, like a puzzle, fit the 3 corners from your triangle together (you might need to click on the picture to blow it up so you can see this better). All the corners should point the same way and touch. Keep an eye on the angles you marked earlier.

Do you notice what happens? When the three corners are fit together, they form a straight line. Every time! (We tried out 3 different triangles to check this) Guess how many degrees are in a straight line? Yup. 180. Therefore, the three corners of a triangle add up to 180.

How is this useful? Well, if you know the measures of two of the angles, you can find the measure of the third. Ta Da!

It also comes in handy when finding the measures of angles in other shapes such as rectangles, parallelograms (I love to spell that word!) and when working with angles and parallel lines.

Did I mention that I got 100% on every test in high school geometry and finished the class with an A+?

Anyone have any proofs I can work out???????